A career at a Biglaw firm is fast and furious. Plan on working at least 50 hours a week, eating many dinners at the office, doing the grunt work on very important cases, having the time of your life (if you’re into this sort of stuff), managing disgruntled family and friends, and making a lot of money. The rewards are enormous and the drawbacks can also be enormous. If you’re a woman, don’t plan on having a baby during your first few years at your Biglaw firm – pregnancy can be a deal breaker with them. In all honesty, you need to learn everything you can about working at a Biglaw firm before you walk through the doors of your law school for orientation. Make sure it’s what you want and also ensure you’re well placed in a national law school. Big Law doesn’t consider all law schools equally when it’s recruiting for it Summer Associates program (which is typically the entrée into a Big Law career). If your sole goal is to work in Biglaw, you need to attend a national law school or just stay home. Law schools with the best Big Law hiring track records: